THE municipality’s ethics committee has found 12 eThekwini councillors guilty of owing the municipality around R40 000 in unpaid rates and services.
The councillors were named during Wednesday’s full council meeting and were given warning letters to pay back the money, which ranged from R60 to more than R8000. Eleven of the councillors were from the ANC, and one councillor was from the DA.
The councillors who owe the City are Vusi Geshabe, who is in arrears for R60.80, Themba Jacob Ncane, who owes R105, Khanyisile Mthembu, who owes R717, Amon Dladla, who owes R893, Stanley Butelezi, who owes R1 270, Vincent Nzama, who owes R2 615, Abegail Shabalala, who owes R2 712, Professor Sibiya, who owes R3 726, Bongani Gumede, who owes R4 800, Dennis Shozi, who owes R4 927, Primrose Hlengwa, who owes R5 598, and Pragalathan Naidoo, who owes R8 187.
The case against one ANC councillor, Hendrick Cele, who owed R9 632, was withdrawn as he has since died.
The councillors had reportedly not paid rates and utility bills for more than 90 days, and some were in arrears at multiple properties.
The investigation into this issue was launched after the ethics committee had received a report in October last year from eThekwini speaker Logie Naidoo, on possible non-compliance in relation to councillors that were in arrears from July to October 2015. Following this, the committee conducted hearings last month to find out the reason for non-compliance. All the councillors were found to have violated the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000.
